["Galaxy Space Odyssey"] Tv series (1990 Japan). NHK Productions. Directed by [not known]. Written by [not known]. Eight 60-minute episodes, plus one special and two omnibus editions, the latter also listed as "specials" in most sources. Colour.

A Space Documentary series, presented as the voyage of a fictional Spaceship, the Helios, interspersed with talking-head footage from the leading astronomers of the day. Intended as a testing ground for new HDTV cameras, photographing real phenomena, its budget spiralled with the addition of ever more elaborate sets and special effects to replicate views of Black Holes, supernovae (see Stars) and similar phenomena. It subsequently won the Film & Media Seiun Award. NHK would try a similar tactic with the later Uchū Michi e no Dai Kikou ["The Great Journey Towards Cosmic Future Knowledge"] (2001 Japan), exploiting new developments in 3D computer graphics, although a second Seiun was not forthcoming. [JonC]

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We passed a couple of major milestones on 1st August: the SFE is now over 4.5 million words, of which John Clute’s own contribution has now exceeded 2 million. (For comparison, the 1993 second edition was 1.3 million words, and … Continue reading →

We’ve reached a couple of milestones recently. The SFE gallery of book covers now has more than 10,000 images: this one seemed appropriate for the 10,000th. Our series of slideshows of thematically linked covers has continued to grow, and Darren Nash of … Continue reading →

We’ve been talking for a while about new features to add to the SFE, and another one has gone live today: the Gallery, which collects together covers for sf books and links them back to SFE entries. To quote from … Continue reading →